Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Battle Report: 1750 Orks versus Dark Eldar!

I got a “pick-up game” the other night. I started very late, and was far too tired for serious play, but though I often get the crap beaten out of me when playing too tired to think, I believe it helps my brain learn what to do without me having to think about it…I tell myself that means I’ll play better when I really can think about it, but maybe it just makes things worse.

Either way, I got a fun game in with an unexpected result…..WAAAAAGH!

My opponent was playing Orks. His list contained:

Ghazghkull Thraka

Mekboy with KFF

3 Battlewagons with Rollaz and Cannons

3 mobs of 19 Choppa Boyz with Nobs (Power Klawz, of course)

Snikrot leading 10 Kommandos with 2 Burnaz

And three units of 6 Lootas

I was using the list I’m planning on using at The Conflict GT:

Baron Sathonyx

Haemonculus

3 Wracks in a Venom

Three units of 5 Warriors (Blasters) in Venoms

16 Hellions plus Helliarch

Three units of 6 Reavers (Champion w/ Venom Blade; 2 Heat Lances)

And TU3R

All Venoms have the Splinter Cannon upgrade

This is essentially my “normal” 2k list, drop the Incubi and a few Hellions (and the Stunclaw…boo).

We rolled Seize Ground and Pitched Battle. He won the roll and chose to go first. I rolled +1WS drug.

He set up all three Lootaz in three ranks, all in the same piece of terrain. Man, I wished I had some blasts to throw back there! The Wagons were all lined up with the Mekboy in the center, giving Cover to the lot. Ghaz went with Snikrot to show up someplace unpleasant.

I had a HORRIBLE deployment, with all my Lances guaranteed to be out of range on Turn 1. I told you, playing tired is bad!

On his Turn 1, he moved the Wagons forward, and fired lots of Dakka with the Lootas, killing only an empty Venom thanks to cover saves.

My turn, and my sleepiness reared it’s head. Now, my thoughts were this: I deployed the Heat Lances 24” from the Battlewagons…if he moved up 6”, and I move up 12”, we should be within Melta range, no sweat! I moved two Reaver squads up, intending to kill a few Wagons. The other Reaver turbo’d forward, making cover and wrapping the Hellions. Ravagers move Flat-out so they’ll actually get to fight this turn. Surviving Venoms shuffle forward and target Lootas. LOS is tricky, but I manage to kill a fair number of the Lootas. The Reavers were a complete failure, as I ended up well over 10” away. I’m not sure how that happened, but it did…so no damage to the Wagons, and we back up to get cover behind the hill.

Not a great turn, but I figure worst case I lose the Reavers and can shoot down a lot of Boyz and the Hellions can do good work on any Ork outside a vehicle!

The Orks waste no time, as the Wagons surge forward and all the Boyz get out. The Lootas kill a Ravager, while the Boyz kill all my Reaver squads…but are left standing right out in the open. Snikrot doesn’t come in, lucky for me…as I’d forgotten all about him!

My best tool for dealing with the Wagons is dead, but if I can kill off those Boyz, I’m not too bad off!

The Hellions shuffled in to a great combi-assault position to get the middle and right Boyz. The Venoms move to get shots at the right Boyz with no cover (though they still had KFF, though). The Ravagers kill the middle Wagon, taking out a handful of Boyz; Venom shooting takes the right Boyz down to just the nob and a couple Boyz. Hellions shoot up Orange, killing several, then their assault is decisive, resulting in the destruction of both squads after Sweeping Advance.

His last Boyz and the Big Mek get in a Wagon, and everything shots at the Hellions. They’re left with just 8 plus the Baron, but are Fearless. Snikrot again fails to arrive…again I’d forgotten about him!

I jump the Hellions up ready to assault the last Boyz, and move the Warrior Venoms to get Blaster fire on the Wagons. I have good dice, and am able to Explode one and Wreck the other. The Hellions run over the Wreck, and assault in to the last Boyz mob, killing them all.

My opponent decided it was hopeless without any Troop choices, so we called the game here. The dice really went my way there at the end killing both of the Wagons like that; moreover Snikrot and Ghaz refusing to help was great for me, since I kept forgetting about them I’m sure they could have done good work on my Ravagers.

I was very pleased with the Hellions, who walked through about 50 Boyz without breaking a sweat. I was a complete failure with the Reavers. In hind-sight I should have gone to kill Lootas first since the Wagons were out of range of anything anyway.

Regardless, a fun game! Like I said, Wagons are kind of hard for me to get my head around, so it was nice to have some positive success against them, and a positive experience with the 1750 list.